My art room has been a guest room

My art has taken a back seat to family in the guest room --- an advantage of living in Florida while everyone else is up north. But yesterday I started an acrylic class with Meike Aton. You can see her work here ... 

Step one is to take a primed canvas and use gesso to create your background.  My tool was Meike's bent butter knife -- I have a feeling I will be raiding my silverware drawer!

 As we waited for the gesso to dry, we did color wheels with acrylic as watercolor , then a second color wheel where I gooped it on (is "gooped" a proper painting term?)

( Actually I am quite sure the gooping part was my own addition, but that paint just cries out for playing with the surface and texture. )


My purple did turn out a bit like a Michigan winter sky. Never quite gets dark at night, just growls.   Makes me happy once more to be in Florida!

Curiously, Meike suggests that we not wash our brushes between colors, but instead brush them off on a separate canvas which will at some point become a background for another painting. So far I am not seeing any form emerge, but it will be interesting to watch this process.

I see a trip to Michaels in my future as all my acrylic brushes and supplies are back in Michigan.  But joy of joy, the Walmart beachside carries painters canvas and gesso so I am good to start a couple more canvases.